Gas scrubbers mounted in the floor of a work area are now commonly used to remove air borne contaminants in a work area, such as a vehicle or appliance paint application booth. U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,442 assigned to the assignee of the present application discloses an improved venturi gas scrubber system which is now commonly used to remove paint particles and other contaminants from a paint spray booth. The improved gas scrubber system disclosed in this patent includes an inlet section, which receives water and the contaminated air having planar converging walls which promote uniform flow of the liquid, an intermediate section, which receives the liquid and gas from the inlet section having diverging planar walls, and a lower section including a bottom wall which is generally perpendicular to the diverging walls and an end wall having an orifice opening. The lower section promotes turbulent flow of the liquid which results in transfer of the contaminants to the liquid and the liquid is projected through the orifice preferably at a right angle to the longitudinal axis to the inlet and intermediate sections. This improved gas scrubber system not only efficiently removes the air borne contaminants in the spray booth, but also results in a reduced noise level in the spray booth because sound generated by the nozzle is reflected off of the internal surfaces compared to a"straight-through" scrubber system wherein the liquid and gas are projected downwardly through an orifice opening in the scrubber. The reduced diameter portion between the diverging walls of the inlet section and the converging walls of the intermediate section thus act as a noise barrier reducing the noise in the paint booth as described in the above-referenced patent.
Nevertheless, there is a need to further reduce the sound generated in a work area, such as a paint spray booth, by a venturi gas scrubber system of the type disclosed in the above-referenced patent. Although the automotive industry, for example, is converting to robotic paint application systems, workers still enter the robotic paint spray booth. Further, there are many other applications where the paint is applied by an operator and further applications requiring gas scrubber systems in other industries. A primary object of the gas scrubber system of this invention is to reduce the noise generated in a work area having a gas scrubber system.
The prior art includes numerous examples of gas scrubber systems, many of which are very complex. The prior art also includes gas scrubber systems which comprise a plurality of spaced discrete straight-through venturi-type scrubbers generally having a common inlet. However, the purpose of using spaced discrete scrubbers in the prior art is to reduce manufacturing costs. It is another object of this invention to reduce manufacturing costs and permit easy cleaning of the scrubber pods; however, the primary object of this invention is to reduce the noise projected to the work area.